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Missouri Compromise
It was an agreement between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving the regulation of slavery in western territories. -
Telegraph
Samuel Morse's telegraph sends the first message from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland. -
Carnige comes
Twelve year old Andrew Carnegie and his poverty-stricken family immigrated to the United States. -
Communist Manifesto
German philosphers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels expanded on the ideas of Socialism in a treatise. -
Compromise of 1850
Package of five bills which defused a four-year confontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, it is about Uncle Tom, who put a human face on slavery for readers who had never witnessed slavery firsthand. It sold 300,000 copies in its first year. -
Kansas gets attacked
Southern proslavery forces attacked the free-state town of Lawrence, Kansas. They looted homes, burned down the hotel, and destroyed the presses of The Kansas Free State newspaper. -
Dred Scott v.Sandford
Dred Scott, an enslaved African American from Missouri, had sued for his freedom. The court ruled against Scott. -
On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species," arguing that animals evolved by a process of "natural selection." Social Darwinism formed after this. -
Southern States Leave the Union
As soon as Lincoln's election was confiremed, the South Carolina legislation, along with other states, called a meeting and seceded from the Union. -
Confederate States of America
The seven seceding states established the Confederate States of America. They then proceeded to frame a constitution for the new government. -
Lincoln takes office
Lincoln was sworn in as President. He took a firm was concilatory tone toward the South. -
Lincoln Decides to Act
President Buchanan tried to send troops and supplies to Fort Sumter, one of the four forts that remained in the Union,, but the unarmed supply ship sailed away when the Confederate guns fired on it. -
Fort Sumter Falls
Northerners responded to the attack on Fort Sumter with shock and anger. A few days later, Lincoln declared that "insurrection" existed and called for 75,000 volunteers to fight against the Confederacy. -
Homestead Act
Offer of free land brings settlers to the Great Plains. -
Lincoln gets an idea
Lincoln decided that he did, indeed, have the authority to proclaim the end of slavery. -
Emancipation Proclamation
It declared that "all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion agains the United States, shall then, thenceforward, and forever free." -
The Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg began on this day. -
The North Faces Problems
White workers attacked free African Americans as well as wealthy New Yorkers who were able to pay a fee to avoid military sevice. -
Gettysburg Address
In a speech knkown as the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln used the occasion to reaffirm the ideas for which the Union was fighting. -
Union Wins
The Civil War ended with the Union victorious. Now, North and South faced the challenge of reunion. -
Lincoln gets Assassinated
Before he could gain support for his moderate plan, Lincoln was assassinated. As the nation mourned, Vice Predident Andrew Johnson became President. -
Johnson Impeachment
Congress tries to remove President Andrew Johnson from office. -
A Feiry Tide
As cities expanded, city services, such as fire departments, became more common. But that was not enough to save Chicago from a fire that left hundred of thousands homeless. -
Standard Oil
When Rockefeller founded Standard Oil, Kerosene was 30 cents a gallon. -
Fifteenth Amendment
It gauranteed that no male citizen could be denied the right to vote on the basis of " race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
Ku Klux Klan Uses Terror Tactics
The Ku Klux Klan, a secret society, used terror and violence against African Americans and their white supporters. A federal grand jury concluded that the chief goal of the Klan attacks was to keep African Americans from voting. -
YellowStone Park
People began raising concerns about protecting natural rescources. Congress than created the National Park Service. -
The Gilded Age
Novilist Mark Twain satirized American Life in his novel. He depicted American society as gilded, or having a rotton core covered with gold paint. -
Edison and his Laberatory
Inventor Thomas Edison established a research laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. -
Lightbulb
Edison and his team invented the light bulb. -
Chinese Exclusion Act
The act prohibited immigration by Chinese laborers, limited the civil rights of Chinese immigrants already in the United States, and forbade the naturalization of Chinese residents. -
Fourth of July in Nebraska
"Buffalo Bill" Cody threw a Fourth of July celebration near his ranch in Nebraska. He booked many preformances along railraod lines. -
First Rollar Coaster
Lamarcus Thompson opened the world's first rollar coaster at ten cents a ride. -
The New American City
Midwestern clergyman Josiah Strong was both fascinated and distressed by rapid urban growth. Americans bought more than 130,000 copies of his 1885 book Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis. -
Home Insurance Company
William LeBaron Jenny designed the Home Insuerance Company building in Chicago. It was the first building in which a steel frame supported the outside walls. allowing more space and windows on lower floors. -
Haymarket Square
Protesters gathered at Haymarket Square in Chicago. A frenzy broke out when a protester threw a bomb. -
Violence Errupts
Thousands of workers mounted a national demonstration for an eight-hour workday. Strikes errupted in several cities. -
Interstate Commerce Commission
This was the first federal body ever set up to monitor American business operations. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
Senate passed this, which outlawed any trust that operated "in a restaurant of trade or commerce among the several states." -
Steels Workers Strike against Homestead
Because of cut wages, a protest occurued and an anarchist tried to assassinate Henry Frick, Andrew Carnegie's partner. -
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
Stephen Crane exposed the slums of New York in his book. -
Workers Strike against Pullman
Workers sent a delegation to neogtiate with George Pullman, who had required workers to live in the company town near Chicago. He responded by firing three workers and shutting down the planet. -
Chinese citizens
A court case established that Chinese people born in America were United States citizens and could come and go freely. -
Female Only Subway
Beginning in 1903, women in New York City could ride in female-only subway cars. -
First Succesful airplane flight
The first successful airplane flight by brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, two bicycle manufacurers, marked the birth of a new industry. -
Melting Pot
Settlement workers and immigrants alike believed that American society was a "melting pot" in which white peopel of all different nationalities blended to create a single culture. -
"Take Me Out To The Ball Game
This famous baseball song was written in 1908. -
Suburban Flights
Mass movement from central cities to suburbs begins.